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This would be against core curriculum wouldn’t it. Lessons are planned out by the district and identical lessons are in every classroom. If learning is not enjoyable this goes against the district.
2.My teacher seems to know if something is bothering me.
No time for feelings with core curriculum, Teachers must stay on pace and refrain from human emotion.
3.In this class, we learn a lot almost every day.
Depends. If I can discover things on my own I learn a lot.
4.If you don't understand something, my teacher explains it another way.
If my question is not covered in the scripted core curriculum, I am screwed.
5.Students get to decide how activities are done in this class.
HA!!!!
6.We get helpful comments to let us know what we did wrong on assignments.
My teacher writes 3 page lesson plans for each lesson and has to rehearse the core currcicuum and do professional development. Because of this I do not get marks because there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead I get a star sticker if I did well and a Mr. Yuck sticker if I did bad.
And didn't Lane teach low elementary for just a few years long ago more than 30 years ago?
Hmmm? Is this why they are always hiring consultants?
(And its easy to see why they never attend the many training sessions that PDE has each year? Wouldn't want to be embarrassed by lack of knowledge required to have good schools in PA.)
Curious George....Back in the days of JT, schools with input from staff and PSCC's were asked to respond to questions that reflected the performance of Central Office departments including the Office of Superintendent. After MR's 1st year, that practice was quickly eliminated. Most folks believe it had to do with the poor ratings that were received. How could the Board members continue the practice when the results were not what they expected?
The performance of the school district under the direction of a seasoned black educator as Superintendent, JT was more positive than a white politician with no educational background or experience as an urban educator other than his crash weekend experience as a BROAD. How could that be? Okay, let's do what comes natural to us. We will no longer continue the process of having staff's and PSCC's rate Central Office but Central Office will continue to have staff members rate their school administrators, parents rate the school, and students rate the teachers. This will provide a snapshot used to evaluate the performance of those at the school level. Since the work of Central Office staffers is well without exception, there is no need to survey their performance. They are are doing what's best for all children, all of the time.
So why isn't the practice of surveying Central Office departments a district priority? If Central Office surveys are considered to be ineffective then how can the Board members and the PFT Leadership even consider using student responses about individual teachers as a criteria for staff evaluation? Teachers are in a Catch-22. They are expected to implement a curriculum that is void of independent thinking and quite frankly it's boring to the students due to its repetative nature.
Children learn best when their curiosity is peeked. Teachers dare not add a twist to their content in terms of creativity. Failure to teach the curriculum with fidelity will place a bullseye right on your head.
Those Central Office Administrators who never taught an academic class in their career are the bearers of infinite wisdom in telling every teacher the recipe for creating a successful teaching and learning process. They inculcated young, impressionable administrators through the PELA process who just like them have minimal classroom experience as seasoned veteran teacher.
Our students are paying a heavy price and so are many dedicated teachers who believe our job as an educator is more than being on the right page, at the right time, implementing the canned curriculum that has a one size fit all students mentality.
Certainly, well stated, 9:58. What will it take for a change in thinking among Board members? There is a serious lack of knowledge and independent thinking in these positions. The aggressive PR campaign gives everyone an opportunity and option to turn their heads from the truth. PPS is "Making Progress in Corrective Action II" and still among the 25 lowest-achieving districts of the 500 PA districts. There are only 2 out of 59 PPS schools where African American students meet the Pennsylvania MINIMUM target for Reading Proficiency. This is following 10 years of detailed DATA on the specific Reading skills needed to be proficient in Reading on the PSSA.
Clearly, the 'one size fits all" scripted curriculum is NOT WORKING for thousands of our African American students. How long will it take for someone to demand immediate change/reform in the methods, strategies and curricula being implemented in a district where the majority of students are African American?
Is it possible for Pedro Noguera to spend enough time in Pittsburgh to lead the change ? What will it take for Central Office to understand the difference between "culturally-relevant pedagogy" and "culturally relevant curricula"? How will it take to provide curricula that is 1) relevant for students across disciplines, 2) strategically-aligned to Pennsylvania Standards and 3) is is delivered via the Danielson Framework ?
There are many so many questions that cannot be answered by the Central Office group who have no experience with these three essentials? How long will it take for PPS to find the right in-house educators who can lead the District out of its current decline? What will it take from parents and community whose children have been put to such egregious risk?
The surveys were even to kindergarten children. The teachers read aloud the question to the student for the child’s verbal answer. They hired subs to cover classes taking time away from teaching the managed curriculum for the surveys.
Yes, the surveys surpassed the importance of the curriculum. Just as important as PSSA tests
When I respond to a survey my answers are usually "in the moment" and therefore accurate for that day only. I would have more faith in the results if they surveyed the same kids twice and tracked any differences in the answers.
8:33 - Curricula is much more important than PSSA. Curricula is the only thing that effects PSSA. Practicing for a month before PSSA will never improve achievement. In fact, the current format and emphasis on "practice" is likely to lower achievement for multiple reasons.There is no need to ever even mention PSSA if the skills are being embedded in day to day teaching, curricula across contents, learning (relevant lessons that "formatively" minute by minute assess acquisition of skills), and sensitive pedagogy.
Again, PSSA need NEVER be mentioned if teaching and learning is advancing appropriate to students needs!
10 comments:
Additional PG article with sample survey questions:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12065/1214520-298.stm
My take on the 6-12 sample questions:
Grades 6-12
1.My teacher makes learning enjoyable.
This would be against core curriculum wouldn’t it. Lessons are planned out by the district and identical lessons are in every classroom. If learning is not enjoyable this goes against the district.
2.My teacher seems to know if something is bothering me.
No time for feelings with core curriculum, Teachers must stay on pace and refrain from human emotion.
3.In this class, we learn a lot almost every day.
Depends. If I can discover things on my own I learn a lot.
4.If you don't understand something, my teacher explains it another way.
If my question is not covered in the scripted core curriculum, I am screwed.
5.Students get to decide how activities are done in this class.
HA!!!!
6.We get helpful comments to let us know what we did wrong on assignments.
My teacher writes 3 page lesson plans for each lesson and has to rehearse the core currcicuum and do professional development. Because of this I do not get marks because there are only 24 hours in a day. Instead I get a star sticker if I did well and a Mr. Yuck sticker if I did bad.
OMG!
And no one can DO anything about what's happening day after day, example after example?
Unbelievable!
The people of Pittsburgh have been 'beheaded' by Broad/Gates and Central Office!
Never thought we'd come to this.
(What happened to "How we got here . . ") ?
Has it disappeared or what?
Here's what I'm curious about.
Chief Academic officer Lippert wants students to rate their teachers.
So do the teachers get to rate Chief Academic Officer Lippert?
If so, here are some questions that should be on that survey:
1. Is Lippert's curriculum a good fit for your PPS classroom?
2. Does Lippert treat all teachers equally, and with respect?
3. Does Lippert lend assistance when needed, or is her office more punitive in nature?
4. What is your opinion of Lippert's 50% minimum grading policy?
5. Overall, has Lippert been an asset to the District?
I do not mean to single out Lippert specifically. If teachers are to be rated, so should all the central administrators.
By the way, Chief Academic Officer Lippert was never an academic teacher - she was a gym teacher - more sad PPS irony.
Was French ever a teacher?
How about Poncelet?
And what about Fischetti, Chief of Staff?
And wasn't Kodman also a Phys Ed teacher?
What is Otuwa's background?
And didn't Lane teach low elementary for just a few years long ago more than 30 years ago?
Hmmm? Is this why they are always hiring consultants?
(And its easy to see why they never attend the many training sessions that PDE has each year? Wouldn't want to be embarrassed by lack of knowledge required to have good schools in PA.)
Curious George....Back in the days of JT, schools with input from staff and PSCC's were asked to respond to questions that reflected the performance of Central Office departments including the Office of Superintendent. After MR's 1st year, that practice was quickly eliminated. Most folks believe it had to do with the poor ratings that were received. How could the Board members continue the practice when the results were not what they expected?
The performance of the school district under the direction of a seasoned black educator as Superintendent, JT was more positive than a white politician with no educational background or experience as an urban educator other than his crash weekend experience as a BROAD. How could that be? Okay, let's do what comes natural to us. We will no longer continue the process of having staff's and PSCC's rate Central Office but Central Office will continue to have staff members rate their school administrators, parents rate the school, and students rate the teachers. This will provide a snapshot used to evaluate the performance of those at the school level. Since the work of Central Office staffers is well without exception, there is no need to survey their performance. They are are doing what's best for all children, all of the time.
So why isn't the practice of surveying Central Office departments a district priority? If Central Office surveys are considered to be ineffective then how can the Board members and the PFT Leadership even consider using student responses about individual teachers as a criteria for staff evaluation? Teachers are in a Catch-22. They are expected to implement a curriculum that is void of independent thinking and quite frankly it's boring to the students due to its repetative nature.
Children learn best when their curiosity is peeked. Teachers dare not add a twist to their content in terms of creativity. Failure to teach the curriculum with fidelity will place a bullseye right on your head.
Those Central Office Administrators who never taught an academic class in their career are the bearers of infinite wisdom in telling every teacher the recipe for creating a successful teaching and learning process. They inculcated young, impressionable administrators through the PELA process who just like them have minimal classroom experience as seasoned veteran teacher.
Our students are paying a heavy price and so are many dedicated teachers who believe our job as an educator is more than being on the right page, at the right time, implementing the canned curriculum that has a one size fit all students mentality.
Certainly, well stated, 9:58. What will it take for a change in thinking among Board members? There is a serious lack of knowledge and independent thinking in these positions. The aggressive PR campaign gives everyone an opportunity and option to turn their heads from the truth. PPS is "Making Progress in Corrective Action II" and still among the 25 lowest-achieving districts of the 500 PA districts. There are only 2 out of 59 PPS schools where African American students meet the Pennsylvania MINIMUM target for Reading Proficiency. This is following 10 years of detailed DATA on the specific Reading skills needed to be proficient in Reading on the PSSA.
Clearly, the 'one size fits all" scripted curriculum is NOT WORKING for thousands of our African American students. How long will it take for someone to demand immediate change/reform in the methods, strategies and curricula being implemented in a district where the majority of students are African American?
Is it possible for Pedro Noguera to spend enough time in Pittsburgh to lead the change ? What will it take for Central Office to understand the difference between "culturally-relevant pedagogy" and "culturally relevant curricula"? How will it take to provide curricula that is 1) relevant for students across disciplines, 2) strategically-aligned to Pennsylvania Standards and 3) is is delivered via the
Danielson Framework ?
There are many so many questions that cannot be answered by the Central Office group who have no experience with these three essentials? How long will it take for PPS to find the right in-house educators who can lead the District out of its current decline? What will it take from parents and community whose children have been put to such egregious risk?
The surveys were even to kindergarten children.
The teachers read aloud the question to the student for the child’s verbal answer.
They hired subs to cover classes taking time away from teaching the managed curriculum for the surveys.
Yes, the surveys surpassed the importance of the curriculum. Just as important as PSSA tests
When I respond to a survey my answers are usually "in the moment" and therefore accurate for that day only. I would have more faith in the results if they surveyed the same kids twice and tracked any differences in the answers.
8:33 - Curricula is much more important than PSSA. Curricula is the only thing that effects PSSA. Practicing for a month before PSSA will never improve achievement. In fact, the current format and emphasis on "practice" is likely to lower achievement for multiple reasons.There is no need to ever even mention PSSA if the skills are being embedded in day to day teaching, curricula across contents, learning (relevant lessons that "formatively" minute by minute assess acquisition of skills), and sensitive pedagogy.
Again, PSSA need NEVER be mentioned if teaching and learning is advancing appropriate to students needs!
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